* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - File
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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu spoke at the CHP weekly group meeting today (March 22).
He criticized the police intervention against the volunteers of Furkan Foundation, who wanted to hold a protest demonstration for the arrested foundation members in southern Adana province on March 20.
"You may like the Furkan Foundation or not, but they wanted to hold a march. Disproportionate force was used. This is the first time in Republican history that veiled women have been subjected to such grave atrocity," said Kılıçdaroğlu, promising that when the CHP comes to power, "it will respect the thoughts, beliefs, identities and lifestyles of everyone".
Kılıçdaroğlu also responded to Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli's remarks during his group meeting earlier today.
With his party allied with President Erdoğan's AKP, Bahçeli talked about the recently opened Çanakkale Bridge, saying, "If you say you won't cross the bridge, you may jump in the water and swim to the other side".
Responding to these remarks in reference to the 10-percent electoral threshold, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "I will have only one question: Where will you swim to when you have failed to pass the threshold?"
'It is built for 10 billion, we will pay 80 billion'
Kılıçdaroğlu talked further about the Çanakkale Bridge, for which President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that "Not a single penny will come out of the nation's pocket", but which has turned out to be subjected to payment with guaranteed vehicle crossings.
Criticizing the bridge along with several other projects undertaken with the same method, Kılıçdaroğlu addressed the voters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and MHP and said:
"My fellow brothers and sisters who voted for the AKP and MHP should put their hands on their hearts and listen to me. City hospitals are nice. We do not know how much they cost or what the obligations are. The construction cost is 10 billion 200 million lira. The pledged amount of money is 82 billion 500 million lira. It costs 10 billion, but we will pay 80 billion".
Referring to a previous speech by Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu said:
"They put their signature under this and say that the authorized body is the London courts. 'If the government changes, no one should touch us...' In the Republic of Turkey, 84 million people cannot be turned into the sphere of exploitation of a handful of people".
Recalling that the third Bosphorus Bridge, or the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge as it is officially called, cost 3 billion 300 million lira, but the guaranteed payment from the Treasury is 9 billion lira, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "These are not ordinary numbers". Referring to the five pro-government conglomerates in Turkey, which have been receiving large public tenders and are harshly criticized by the opposition as the "Ring of Five", Kılıçdaroğlu said, "These are not small numbers to be left to the ring of five".
Addressing the public ahead of the upcoming general elections, the CHP Chair said, "If you say that you will still vote for the AKP and MHP at the next elections, no offense, but you will be a party to the theft".
'Erdoğan is the patron of the ring of five'
Further in his speech, Kılıçdaroğlu stated:
"I said, 'Look, this large amount of money cannot only be left to the ring of five. There are those benefiting from there'. This is my promise to you: I will reveal all of the ones who benefit. Those oligarchs have taken their money to London, I will bring all that money back in here.
"The name of the patron and marketeer of the ring of five is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. No offense. I wish he files a suit. I will take them all with me to the court, submitting every one of them to the judge with the documents and permits signed by him. I will show how they gave without tender". (AS/SD)
